A favourite trope of the small-state crowd is to attack taxes by saying 'make work pay' as if taxes had prompted a low-wage economy. The *real* issue is the share of national Gross Value Added that accrues to capital & to labour (in aggregated terms). In 1975 workers' share of GVA was 71.9%.. fifty years later that has dropped to 59.7%. So, while the UK's economy has largely stagnated, capital has increased its capture of value from economic activity. #economics #inequality h/t Prem Sikka